Post by chishkabob on Nov 2, 2007 21:08:30 GMT -5
yet another illogical one...
PART IV:
Alex Barkin’s search
CHARACTERS Alex Barkin
Loni Barkin
Charlie Barkin
Kim Dachshund
Itchy Dachshund
Gail La Fleur
Terri La Fleur
Sasha La Fleur
Flo Collieon
Anne Marie Hew
David Clark
Vanessa Shepherd
CHAPTER I
Welcome to the third part of our story. In this part of our little story, Alex Barkin begins a search for his brother. We’ll start off just after school. Alex is escorting his girlfriend, Vanessa, home. “Would yo-, would you like to come to my house today?” Alex nervously asks Vanessa, for this is the first time he’s asked her for a while. They’re housedogs, you see. And, naturally, they are very clean and polite. They like to stick to the good old ways. They generally do not ask other housedogs over unless they have known each other for a year. Alex and Vanessa have only known each other for about 6 months now. This is why he is nervous; he also simply loves her. They arrive home. “Mother, I am home!” Alex calls to his mother. “Hello, Alex. Who might this be? Is it the wonderful Vanessa I have been hearing about?” She asks Alex, glancing at Vanessa. “Why, yes, she is, Mother.” Alex says to his mother, while Alex and Vanessa continue to look upon each other as if Alex’s mother were not there. As you should know, she is not happy about this, yet she is happy that her son is so happy. She allows them upstairs until Vanessa’s sister and Mother come to pick her up. Vanessa and her sister embrace each other and soon walk off with their mother, laughing for no apparent reason.
“Mother, why do I not have a brother?” Alex asks his mother after Vanessa had left. “Why, you have one, Alex.” “WHAT? Where is he? What’s his name? What’s his name? Why didn’t you tell me? Oh, I gotta know!” Alex said, suddenly exploding with energy. His mother, appalled by this sudden explosion, just stared at her son with horror. “Excuse me!” she said. Alex, knowing he was not going to get any answers this way, said, “Please, mother, I must know.” “That’s much better. His name is Charlie.” She said showing Alex a picture of a German Shepherd mix puppy. “Is he really that young?” Alex said, now very confused. “No, he would be around 20 by now, if he is alive. He ran away when he around 2 months old. He never did fit in, not in this neighborhood, anyway.” She said sadly. Alex looked at her for a moment before saying, “You must miss him.” “Yes, very much.” She said, her eyes filling with tears. This was obviously hard for her to talk about.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Charlie looks up at sky, watching as the stars twinkle peacefully in the night sky. “Hey, why are you up here?” Sasha asks as she walks towards Charlie. “ Don’t know.” Charlie says, not stopping his star gazing to look at Sasha. She looks at him for a second, and they both lay down, holding each other’s paws. “You were thinking weren’t you?” Sasha says, breaking the long, peaceful silence that had lasted quite a while. “I guess.” Charlie mutters, never stopping to look anywhere but the stars. “What were you thinking about?” Sasha asks. Knowing Charlie, he is not the one to keep stuff secret or be shy at all. “Stuff.” Charlie says. “What kinda stuff?” asks a now giggling Sasha. “Stuff.” Charlie says again. Sasha now realizes that she isn’t going to get anything more out of him and the two stand together in the moonlight.
Back in New Orleans, Alex is now even more determined to find out everything he can about his brother and, hopefully, find him. “So, do you any clues whatsoever on where he might be?” Alex anxiously asked his mother. “Just these letters.” Loni says, holding a stack of papers at least an inch thick. “Which is the most recent one?” Alex asks thinking it would take forever to read every letter in the stack. Loni stares at him for a second before throwing papers everywhere as she tears through the stack. A while later, she holds a paper in front of Alex. “Gimme, gimme!” Alex says as his mother wildly waves the paper out of his grasp. “Say please!” she yells while Alex is franticly grabbing for the paper. “Please.” Alex says calmly. The paper is now in front of him within his reach. “Now give me that.” Alex says as he snatches the paper away from his mother. He begins to read the letter. Loni is looking over his shoulder, also reading the letter. This is what it said:
Mrs. Barkin-
If you wanted to find Charlie, this is what the house looks like: its brownish, has few
boarded windows and looks something like one of those flat roofed houses made of sand and
mud.
Or something like that… Don’t tell Charlie I told you this.
~Itchy
PS. We live in San Francisco.
“So, we go to San Francisco.” Alex says as he finishes reading. Loni is still reading. When she finishes, she pauses for a moment before answering Alex’s question. “It would appear so. However, San Francisco is quite a ways from here and he could be anywhere in the big city.” Loni says. “Yeah, that’s true.” Alex mutters under his breath, now discouraged. There was a long pause. Suddenly, inspiration strikes. “Would Itchy’s parent’s know?” Alex asks his mother who looks rather discouraged. She stares at him for a moment, then holds her paw in the air as if it held a sword. “To Itchy’s!” She exclaims before running in the direction of Itchy’s childhood home with Alex tagging along not far behind.
After a long run, they finally arrived at Itchy’s childhood home. Why they ran, that reason is unknown. They slowed down as they got closer to the house, mainly because they were nervous about barging into a house in which someone whom they had never spoken to lived. They slowly walked up the path, not saying a word to each other as they approached the door. They ran the bell and after a little while, they saw the door open and looked down. There they saw a little dachshund. Them being German Shepherds and her being the dachshund that she is, this made conversation a bit uncomfortable. After a while, the dachshund was the first one to gather enough courage to speak. Why it took courage to speak, no one knows. “Charlie, Sasha, is that you?” she said, by the way, her sight is not the best it could be. Loni and Alex looked at each other for a moment, then back at her. They were clearly surprised by this remark. “No, we are Charlie’s family.” Loni said in the calmest voice she could manage. Kim, the dachshund, gave them a mad look before saying, “Then go away!” She then slammed the door.
Loni had never experienced such rudeness, except from Charlie. She thought for a second, then tried again. Once again she rang the bell. “Fine, I’m here. Now, what do you want?” Kim said to them, still with a cross face. “Well, we were hoping you could help us with something.” Loni told her. Any confidence from before had long vanished. “Well, what do you want?” Kim asked again. More silence. “I’m here. Now what do you want?” she asked again. She was beginning to sound more and more annoyed, as if she were about to explode. “Well, could you, could you help us?” Loni said. She was clearly about to also explode. “I know that part already! Now tell me what you want!” Loni was clearly ready to turn and run. She wanted to, too. “We’re trying to find my brother, Charlie. We have been getting letters from your son, Itchy. We were hoping you might give us a clue on where to find Charlie or Itchy.” Alex said. He had finally gotten up enough confidence to actually speak. His eyes had been darting franticly between his mother and Kim.
“Oh. I just don’t see why you didn’t search for him sooner.” Kim said as Loni and Alex followed her into the house. “They live two blocks from “The Flea Bite Club”. It shouldn’t be hard to miss.” She said as she fiddled with random things she found around the house. “How do you know Charlie? And where he lives?” Loni asked Kim, curious about this dachshund, which she had never met, seemed to know more about her son than she did. Kim stopped fiddling and replied. “I visit Itchy quite often, so I know where he lives. Charlie and Itchy live together, so of coarse I know.” This was all she said before she began fiddling with things again. “You’d think a mother would know these thing already. Tsk, tsk.” Kim said, breaking a silence that had existed for what seemed like forever. “Well, how am I supposed to know these things? Charlie never contacts me. I almost forgot about him until Alex here brought him up a short 3 hours ago.” Loni said, annoyed by Kim’s remark. She was also getting frustrated. It shouldn’t take this long to find her own son, right? Luckily, Alex stepped in before things got worse.
“Mrs. Itchy, you’ve been a big help, and we’re very grateful, however, we must be going. Have a wonderful day!” he said as he pushed his mother out the door. “Wait,” Loni said, stopping so suddenly that Alex bumped into her. ”How are we even going to even to get to San Francisco? Walk?” Kim grinned. ”Catch a bus, of coarse.” She said just as Alex gave Loni a final push out the door. “Bye!” Loni said cheerfully. Alex, however, would have said good bye, but, one, he was pushing his mother down a garden pathway, and two, he had already said good bye.
“How are we even going to catch a bus?” Loni and Alex both said at the same time as they headed towards the bus stop. As they neared the bus stop, after a long silence, “Do we jump?” Alex asked his mother, hoping she had had some type of experience with busses. “I guess, but I think we should wait until it stops before jumping on.” Loni said just as they arrived at the bus stop. “Duh.” Alex muttered, sure that his mother couldn’t hear him.
“Alexander Joseph Barkin! How dare you speak to your mother like that! In all my life I have never heard you be disrespectful to anyone! You’re beginning to sound like your brother! This is so embarrassing!” Loni said as she began to have a nervous brake down. “There’s no one here but us.” Alex said as his darted from here to there and there to here. “What if they’re hiding?” Loni said, she was beginning to sound desperate. Her nervous break down had started. ”You’re only embarrassing yourself by doing that.” Alex had been looking at her, as if she were and insane. And, at the moment, who could blame him? Loni was now down on her knees. And Alex decided to help her up before someone either saw her or she hurt herself. “I’m fine. I am fine and calm.” Loni said, breathing deeply. ”Sure.” Alex said, not sure of his mother’s sanity at the moment. “Okay. I am okay. I’ll stop now.” Loni said as she began to recover from the nervous breakdown of the bus stop.
As the duo finally began to settle in at the bus stop, they heard the bus approaching the bus stop. “Here it comes. It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop, though.” Loni said as she peeked out from the bus station as the bus quickly approached them. “I guess we jump.” She said as the bus came closer. Alex would have loved to have pointed out that they had already decided that they would jump, but for one thing, there wasn’t enough time to say it, or they would miss the bus and two, he didn’t want to risk another break down. “On the count of three.” Loni said, obviously nervous. “One, one and a half, one and three quarters…””Three!” Alex said as he jumped onto the back of the bus. Loni realized this and quickly followed. “That was scary.” Loni said. Her face was mortified and her body, petrified. “You lived. See, you’re okay.” Alex said while gently patting his mother on the back.
For the next few hours, Alex asked questions about his brother and Loni answered everything she could. They then made up stories about what Charlie might have been doing in the past 20 years that he had been away. Some were bizarre, obviously only for entertainment. Others were silly, and some could have happened. After a while, they realized that it was late and they slept.
In the morning when they woke up, they were in the country. As they passed farms and such, they stared blankly at the peaceful scenes that whizzed by. Never before had they seen a farm or anything but the city. Neither talked until they came to a small town. “Wow. This is...” Loni said, pausing while she admired the small town. “…different.” There were no big shops, only small, little shops, probably no bigger than the average bedroom. “Wow.” Alex said quietly. Kids were playing with their pets in the dirt road, throwing balls around and playing an endless game of tag. Alex and Loni felt as if they were intruding, for there were no cars passing through the town. The bus seemed like the only motorized or electronic thing in the town.
After about ten minutes or so, the bus emerged from the town and they turned onto the highway. It was very noisy compared to the peace they had just been exposed to. They returned to their conversations from the night before, new stories and editing some from the night before. After a while, they became bored and didn’t talk for a while. They daydreamed, and soon started talking about any random thing they could think of. They decided to take a nap, seeing that they had nothing to talk about anymore, and they still had quite a ways to go. When they awoke, it was dusk and there was also a sunset. They could also see the skyline of San Francisco. “It looks so pretty from this angle.” Loni said as she stared at she stared at the sunset. She had never seen a sunset from the outside of the city before.
As they crossed the bridge, they looked down at the beach and saw two dogs sitting together. Loni seemed entranced by the sight, as if she wanted to be one of the dogs that were sitting down on the beach, watching the sunset. She wondered if they were married, just together, close friends, just met friends, best friends, or dating? Alex clapped his paws in front of her face. “Mother, snap out of it!” Alex laughed. “Hey, you can’t blame me!” Loni said, on the verge of laughing herself. Neither knew why they were laughing, they just were.
After they recovered from their laughing fit, they moved onto the question they were both wondering, “How are we going to find Charlie?” they said in unison. “What if he doesn’t recognize me? What if he hates me? What if he thinks I hate him?” A dozen negative questions began pouring from Loni’s mouth. Alex reply was a parade of questions that were positive, such as “What if he does?” Loni’s reply was an ambush of questions countering each of Alex’s questions. Alex countered her questions. And Loni his. This went on for an hour or so.
The bus came to a sudden stop, which caught Alex off guard and he went flying and landed next the sidewalk.
A beautiful Irish setter came over and half said, half giggled “Charlie, did you get hit again?” This was followed by another giggle. Alex regained his strength and sat up, holding his paw to his head and said, “Do I know you?” The Irish setter took one good look at him and said “Oh, never mind.” She then walked away after. “Who was that?” Loni said after Alex returned to her. “I’m not sure. She thought I was Charlie.” “Oh, well, she was very pretty.” Loni said then began walking the opposite way that the Setter had gone only to stop short and freeze.
“Wait! That means she knows him!” Loni said rather loudly. “WAIT!” Alex yelled, realizing that the Irish Setter must know something about his long-lost brother. “Sorry, but I’ve already got a boyfriend.” The setter said smiling, then turned around and continued on her way. “Let me handle this.” Loni said, then ran after the setter. “Excuse me, but do you know a Charlie Barkin?” Loni asked her. “Yeah, why?” the setter asked. “I’m his mother and I’d like to find him.” This seemed to surprise the setter and delight her at the same time. “Really? My name’s Sasha. I’m kinda his girlfriend.” Sasha said now smiling even more than before. Loni was now also smiling. “Really? That’s so cool!” They were suddenly best friends.
Alex was still back at the sewer hole, rolling his eyes. Sasha was about Charlie’s age and very thin. “So, who’s the guy, Charlie’s dad? Wait, he’s too young for that…” Sasha said, gaining momentum as she spoke. Alex, seeing that the girl talk was over, decided to join the cheerful duo. “That’s Charlie’s brother, Alex.” “Interesting.” They began talking fast again and Alex lost himself. He regretted leaving his spot next to the sewer hole. “Hi, I’m Sasha.” Sasha said, now facing Alex, who was still somewhat dazed from all the fast-talking. He had never known his mother possessed such a power. “Oh, h-hi.” Alex said as he began to recover. “She’s Charlie’s girlfriend.” Loni said while nodding. “Kinda.” Sasha said, also nodding. “No, you can’t be kinda. Either you are or your not.” ”Nuh-uh.” “Uh-huh.” “Nuh-uh.” “Uh-huh.” This went on for a while and the nuh-uhs and uh-huhs were getting faster, again. Alex knew he had to do something or he would either faint or die. “Help.” He said quietly. Neither Sasha nor Loni heard him as their endless brigade of uhs continued on.
Though they never made a decision, they did stop bickering after a while. “So, so do you wanna see Charlie or not?” Sasha said to Loni and Alex. “Of coarse.” Loni said. “Then come on! Follow me!” Sasha said as she began to run again. Alex just rolled his eyes. Despite Sasha’s good looks and his mother’s usual competence, his mother and this Sasha seemed to be getting stupider by the minute. He followed at his mother’s pace, which was walking. “So, are you jealous or nervous?” Loni said when he had caught up with him. “Both.” Was all Alex said. “Well, are you coming or not?” Sasha yelled. She was now at least ten feet ahead of them. Alex and Loni continued to walk at the same pace, ignoring Sasha’s question completely. Sasha waited. After quite a while, they caught up to Sasha, who began running again. After another ten feet, she yelled, “Come on, slow pokes!” She was getting irritated and wondered if they’d speed up anytime soon. At this rate it’d take a week to just get to the café, and from there they’d still have to walk two blocks. Alex and Loni caught up and this time Sasha walked with them.
After a ways, Alex was behind and the girls were up front. “What worries me is that you are so thin. Is Charlie that thin? He was always a chubby little thing. But that could’ve changed by now.” She rambled on, gaining more and more speed as she talked. Alex could hear them a little bit and he was getting annoyed. Thankfully, Sasha stopped Loni before Alex exploded. “It’s fine. Don’t worry.”
They had been gaining speed since they had first started walking and were now in front of an old, beat up, run down house. It was tan and had three windows, two of which were boarded up. The door had long disappeared. “Darn, he’s not home.” Sasha said, seeing that no lights were on and Charlie and Itchy were never asleep this early. “Wanna hang at my place until he gets back?” Sasha asked Loni, who was staring at the old building in disgust. “Charlie actually lives in that pile of junk?” Loni asked, her face still showed a hint of disbelief. “Hey, they’re pretty lucky to live there.” Sasha irritably said. “I’m just used to better.” Loni said. “Look, I don’t know what planet you’re from, but no dog I’ve ever known has ever lived in a good, clean, new home.” Sasha said to Loni, who just stared at her. “You’re sick.” Loni said, popped her chin up and walked on like the queen of England. Alex, who had stopped to look at Charlie’s house, heard the commotion and decided to catch up in case another fight broke out. He was relived to find that it had pretty much died out.
They soon arrived at Sasha’s. Her house was nicer than Charlie’s, but still no where near as nice as Loni and Alex’s home. They went in and found it to be a very humble, homey place. Sasha plopped down on a couch that looked like it had been picked off of the curb. “Have a seat.” Sasha said. “N-no thanks.” Loni said, looking at the torn furniture in disgust. “So, you wanna go to the café?” Sasha asked Loni, who was still glancing around. “Huh? Oh, um, wouldn’t it be closed by now?” “No, it’s sort of a night club. But it has more of that café feel. You know what I mean?” Sasha said to Loni, then looked at Alex. “What about you, little guy?” Sasha asked. Alex had been sitting in the corner, looking rather nervous. “Uh…sure, sounds like fun.” “Then come on!” Sasha said before heading out the door.
PART IV:
Alex Barkin’s search
CHARACTERS Alex Barkin
Loni Barkin
Charlie Barkin
Kim Dachshund
Itchy Dachshund
Gail La Fleur
Terri La Fleur
Sasha La Fleur
Flo Collieon
Anne Marie Hew
David Clark
Vanessa Shepherd
CHAPTER I
Welcome to the third part of our story. In this part of our little story, Alex Barkin begins a search for his brother. We’ll start off just after school. Alex is escorting his girlfriend, Vanessa, home. “Would yo-, would you like to come to my house today?” Alex nervously asks Vanessa, for this is the first time he’s asked her for a while. They’re housedogs, you see. And, naturally, they are very clean and polite. They like to stick to the good old ways. They generally do not ask other housedogs over unless they have known each other for a year. Alex and Vanessa have only known each other for about 6 months now. This is why he is nervous; he also simply loves her. They arrive home. “Mother, I am home!” Alex calls to his mother. “Hello, Alex. Who might this be? Is it the wonderful Vanessa I have been hearing about?” She asks Alex, glancing at Vanessa. “Why, yes, she is, Mother.” Alex says to his mother, while Alex and Vanessa continue to look upon each other as if Alex’s mother were not there. As you should know, she is not happy about this, yet she is happy that her son is so happy. She allows them upstairs until Vanessa’s sister and Mother come to pick her up. Vanessa and her sister embrace each other and soon walk off with their mother, laughing for no apparent reason.
“Mother, why do I not have a brother?” Alex asks his mother after Vanessa had left. “Why, you have one, Alex.” “WHAT? Where is he? What’s his name? What’s his name? Why didn’t you tell me? Oh, I gotta know!” Alex said, suddenly exploding with energy. His mother, appalled by this sudden explosion, just stared at her son with horror. “Excuse me!” she said. Alex, knowing he was not going to get any answers this way, said, “Please, mother, I must know.” “That’s much better. His name is Charlie.” She said showing Alex a picture of a German Shepherd mix puppy. “Is he really that young?” Alex said, now very confused. “No, he would be around 20 by now, if he is alive. He ran away when he around 2 months old. He never did fit in, not in this neighborhood, anyway.” She said sadly. Alex looked at her for a moment before saying, “You must miss him.” “Yes, very much.” She said, her eyes filling with tears. This was obviously hard for her to talk about.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Charlie looks up at sky, watching as the stars twinkle peacefully in the night sky. “Hey, why are you up here?” Sasha asks as she walks towards Charlie. “ Don’t know.” Charlie says, not stopping his star gazing to look at Sasha. She looks at him for a second, and they both lay down, holding each other’s paws. “You were thinking weren’t you?” Sasha says, breaking the long, peaceful silence that had lasted quite a while. “I guess.” Charlie mutters, never stopping to look anywhere but the stars. “What were you thinking about?” Sasha asks. Knowing Charlie, he is not the one to keep stuff secret or be shy at all. “Stuff.” Charlie says. “What kinda stuff?” asks a now giggling Sasha. “Stuff.” Charlie says again. Sasha now realizes that she isn’t going to get anything more out of him and the two stand together in the moonlight.
Back in New Orleans, Alex is now even more determined to find out everything he can about his brother and, hopefully, find him. “So, do you any clues whatsoever on where he might be?” Alex anxiously asked his mother. “Just these letters.” Loni says, holding a stack of papers at least an inch thick. “Which is the most recent one?” Alex asks thinking it would take forever to read every letter in the stack. Loni stares at him for a second before throwing papers everywhere as she tears through the stack. A while later, she holds a paper in front of Alex. “Gimme, gimme!” Alex says as his mother wildly waves the paper out of his grasp. “Say please!” she yells while Alex is franticly grabbing for the paper. “Please.” Alex says calmly. The paper is now in front of him within his reach. “Now give me that.” Alex says as he snatches the paper away from his mother. He begins to read the letter. Loni is looking over his shoulder, also reading the letter. This is what it said:
Mrs. Barkin-
If you wanted to find Charlie, this is what the house looks like: its brownish, has few
boarded windows and looks something like one of those flat roofed houses made of sand and
mud.
Or something like that… Don’t tell Charlie I told you this.
~Itchy
PS. We live in San Francisco.
“So, we go to San Francisco.” Alex says as he finishes reading. Loni is still reading. When she finishes, she pauses for a moment before answering Alex’s question. “It would appear so. However, San Francisco is quite a ways from here and he could be anywhere in the big city.” Loni says. “Yeah, that’s true.” Alex mutters under his breath, now discouraged. There was a long pause. Suddenly, inspiration strikes. “Would Itchy’s parent’s know?” Alex asks his mother who looks rather discouraged. She stares at him for a moment, then holds her paw in the air as if it held a sword. “To Itchy’s!” She exclaims before running in the direction of Itchy’s childhood home with Alex tagging along not far behind.
After a long run, they finally arrived at Itchy’s childhood home. Why they ran, that reason is unknown. They slowed down as they got closer to the house, mainly because they were nervous about barging into a house in which someone whom they had never spoken to lived. They slowly walked up the path, not saying a word to each other as they approached the door. They ran the bell and after a little while, they saw the door open and looked down. There they saw a little dachshund. Them being German Shepherds and her being the dachshund that she is, this made conversation a bit uncomfortable. After a while, the dachshund was the first one to gather enough courage to speak. Why it took courage to speak, no one knows. “Charlie, Sasha, is that you?” she said, by the way, her sight is not the best it could be. Loni and Alex looked at each other for a moment, then back at her. They were clearly surprised by this remark. “No, we are Charlie’s family.” Loni said in the calmest voice she could manage. Kim, the dachshund, gave them a mad look before saying, “Then go away!” She then slammed the door.
Loni had never experienced such rudeness, except from Charlie. She thought for a second, then tried again. Once again she rang the bell. “Fine, I’m here. Now, what do you want?” Kim said to them, still with a cross face. “Well, we were hoping you could help us with something.” Loni told her. Any confidence from before had long vanished. “Well, what do you want?” Kim asked again. More silence. “I’m here. Now what do you want?” she asked again. She was beginning to sound more and more annoyed, as if she were about to explode. “Well, could you, could you help us?” Loni said. She was clearly about to also explode. “I know that part already! Now tell me what you want!” Loni was clearly ready to turn and run. She wanted to, too. “We’re trying to find my brother, Charlie. We have been getting letters from your son, Itchy. We were hoping you might give us a clue on where to find Charlie or Itchy.” Alex said. He had finally gotten up enough confidence to actually speak. His eyes had been darting franticly between his mother and Kim.
“Oh. I just don’t see why you didn’t search for him sooner.” Kim said as Loni and Alex followed her into the house. “They live two blocks from “The Flea Bite Club”. It shouldn’t be hard to miss.” She said as she fiddled with random things she found around the house. “How do you know Charlie? And where he lives?” Loni asked Kim, curious about this dachshund, which she had never met, seemed to know more about her son than she did. Kim stopped fiddling and replied. “I visit Itchy quite often, so I know where he lives. Charlie and Itchy live together, so of coarse I know.” This was all she said before she began fiddling with things again. “You’d think a mother would know these thing already. Tsk, tsk.” Kim said, breaking a silence that had existed for what seemed like forever. “Well, how am I supposed to know these things? Charlie never contacts me. I almost forgot about him until Alex here brought him up a short 3 hours ago.” Loni said, annoyed by Kim’s remark. She was also getting frustrated. It shouldn’t take this long to find her own son, right? Luckily, Alex stepped in before things got worse.
“Mrs. Itchy, you’ve been a big help, and we’re very grateful, however, we must be going. Have a wonderful day!” he said as he pushed his mother out the door. “Wait,” Loni said, stopping so suddenly that Alex bumped into her. ”How are we even going to even to get to San Francisco? Walk?” Kim grinned. ”Catch a bus, of coarse.” She said just as Alex gave Loni a final push out the door. “Bye!” Loni said cheerfully. Alex, however, would have said good bye, but, one, he was pushing his mother down a garden pathway, and two, he had already said good bye.
“How are we even going to catch a bus?” Loni and Alex both said at the same time as they headed towards the bus stop. As they neared the bus stop, after a long silence, “Do we jump?” Alex asked his mother, hoping she had had some type of experience with busses. “I guess, but I think we should wait until it stops before jumping on.” Loni said just as they arrived at the bus stop. “Duh.” Alex muttered, sure that his mother couldn’t hear him.
“Alexander Joseph Barkin! How dare you speak to your mother like that! In all my life I have never heard you be disrespectful to anyone! You’re beginning to sound like your brother! This is so embarrassing!” Loni said as she began to have a nervous brake down. “There’s no one here but us.” Alex said as his darted from here to there and there to here. “What if they’re hiding?” Loni said, she was beginning to sound desperate. Her nervous break down had started. ”You’re only embarrassing yourself by doing that.” Alex had been looking at her, as if she were and insane. And, at the moment, who could blame him? Loni was now down on her knees. And Alex decided to help her up before someone either saw her or she hurt herself. “I’m fine. I am fine and calm.” Loni said, breathing deeply. ”Sure.” Alex said, not sure of his mother’s sanity at the moment. “Okay. I am okay. I’ll stop now.” Loni said as she began to recover from the nervous breakdown of the bus stop.
As the duo finally began to settle in at the bus stop, they heard the bus approaching the bus stop. “Here it comes. It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop, though.” Loni said as she peeked out from the bus station as the bus quickly approached them. “I guess we jump.” She said as the bus came closer. Alex would have loved to have pointed out that they had already decided that they would jump, but for one thing, there wasn’t enough time to say it, or they would miss the bus and two, he didn’t want to risk another break down. “On the count of three.” Loni said, obviously nervous. “One, one and a half, one and three quarters…””Three!” Alex said as he jumped onto the back of the bus. Loni realized this and quickly followed. “That was scary.” Loni said. Her face was mortified and her body, petrified. “You lived. See, you’re okay.” Alex said while gently patting his mother on the back.
For the next few hours, Alex asked questions about his brother and Loni answered everything she could. They then made up stories about what Charlie might have been doing in the past 20 years that he had been away. Some were bizarre, obviously only for entertainment. Others were silly, and some could have happened. After a while, they realized that it was late and they slept.
In the morning when they woke up, they were in the country. As they passed farms and such, they stared blankly at the peaceful scenes that whizzed by. Never before had they seen a farm or anything but the city. Neither talked until they came to a small town. “Wow. This is...” Loni said, pausing while she admired the small town. “…different.” There were no big shops, only small, little shops, probably no bigger than the average bedroom. “Wow.” Alex said quietly. Kids were playing with their pets in the dirt road, throwing balls around and playing an endless game of tag. Alex and Loni felt as if they were intruding, for there were no cars passing through the town. The bus seemed like the only motorized or electronic thing in the town.
After about ten minutes or so, the bus emerged from the town and they turned onto the highway. It was very noisy compared to the peace they had just been exposed to. They returned to their conversations from the night before, new stories and editing some from the night before. After a while, they became bored and didn’t talk for a while. They daydreamed, and soon started talking about any random thing they could think of. They decided to take a nap, seeing that they had nothing to talk about anymore, and they still had quite a ways to go. When they awoke, it was dusk and there was also a sunset. They could also see the skyline of San Francisco. “It looks so pretty from this angle.” Loni said as she stared at she stared at the sunset. She had never seen a sunset from the outside of the city before.
As they crossed the bridge, they looked down at the beach and saw two dogs sitting together. Loni seemed entranced by the sight, as if she wanted to be one of the dogs that were sitting down on the beach, watching the sunset. She wondered if they were married, just together, close friends, just met friends, best friends, or dating? Alex clapped his paws in front of her face. “Mother, snap out of it!” Alex laughed. “Hey, you can’t blame me!” Loni said, on the verge of laughing herself. Neither knew why they were laughing, they just were.
After they recovered from their laughing fit, they moved onto the question they were both wondering, “How are we going to find Charlie?” they said in unison. “What if he doesn’t recognize me? What if he hates me? What if he thinks I hate him?” A dozen negative questions began pouring from Loni’s mouth. Alex reply was a parade of questions that were positive, such as “What if he does?” Loni’s reply was an ambush of questions countering each of Alex’s questions. Alex countered her questions. And Loni his. This went on for an hour or so.
The bus came to a sudden stop, which caught Alex off guard and he went flying and landed next the sidewalk.
A beautiful Irish setter came over and half said, half giggled “Charlie, did you get hit again?” This was followed by another giggle. Alex regained his strength and sat up, holding his paw to his head and said, “Do I know you?” The Irish setter took one good look at him and said “Oh, never mind.” She then walked away after. “Who was that?” Loni said after Alex returned to her. “I’m not sure. She thought I was Charlie.” “Oh, well, she was very pretty.” Loni said then began walking the opposite way that the Setter had gone only to stop short and freeze.
“Wait! That means she knows him!” Loni said rather loudly. “WAIT!” Alex yelled, realizing that the Irish Setter must know something about his long-lost brother. “Sorry, but I’ve already got a boyfriend.” The setter said smiling, then turned around and continued on her way. “Let me handle this.” Loni said, then ran after the setter. “Excuse me, but do you know a Charlie Barkin?” Loni asked her. “Yeah, why?” the setter asked. “I’m his mother and I’d like to find him.” This seemed to surprise the setter and delight her at the same time. “Really? My name’s Sasha. I’m kinda his girlfriend.” Sasha said now smiling even more than before. Loni was now also smiling. “Really? That’s so cool!” They were suddenly best friends.
Alex was still back at the sewer hole, rolling his eyes. Sasha was about Charlie’s age and very thin. “So, who’s the guy, Charlie’s dad? Wait, he’s too young for that…” Sasha said, gaining momentum as she spoke. Alex, seeing that the girl talk was over, decided to join the cheerful duo. “That’s Charlie’s brother, Alex.” “Interesting.” They began talking fast again and Alex lost himself. He regretted leaving his spot next to the sewer hole. “Hi, I’m Sasha.” Sasha said, now facing Alex, who was still somewhat dazed from all the fast-talking. He had never known his mother possessed such a power. “Oh, h-hi.” Alex said as he began to recover. “She’s Charlie’s girlfriend.” Loni said while nodding. “Kinda.” Sasha said, also nodding. “No, you can’t be kinda. Either you are or your not.” ”Nuh-uh.” “Uh-huh.” “Nuh-uh.” “Uh-huh.” This went on for a while and the nuh-uhs and uh-huhs were getting faster, again. Alex knew he had to do something or he would either faint or die. “Help.” He said quietly. Neither Sasha nor Loni heard him as their endless brigade of uhs continued on.
Though they never made a decision, they did stop bickering after a while. “So, so do you wanna see Charlie or not?” Sasha said to Loni and Alex. “Of coarse.” Loni said. “Then come on! Follow me!” Sasha said as she began to run again. Alex just rolled his eyes. Despite Sasha’s good looks and his mother’s usual competence, his mother and this Sasha seemed to be getting stupider by the minute. He followed at his mother’s pace, which was walking. “So, are you jealous or nervous?” Loni said when he had caught up with him. “Both.” Was all Alex said. “Well, are you coming or not?” Sasha yelled. She was now at least ten feet ahead of them. Alex and Loni continued to walk at the same pace, ignoring Sasha’s question completely. Sasha waited. After quite a while, they caught up to Sasha, who began running again. After another ten feet, she yelled, “Come on, slow pokes!” She was getting irritated and wondered if they’d speed up anytime soon. At this rate it’d take a week to just get to the café, and from there they’d still have to walk two blocks. Alex and Loni caught up and this time Sasha walked with them.
After a ways, Alex was behind and the girls were up front. “What worries me is that you are so thin. Is Charlie that thin? He was always a chubby little thing. But that could’ve changed by now.” She rambled on, gaining more and more speed as she talked. Alex could hear them a little bit and he was getting annoyed. Thankfully, Sasha stopped Loni before Alex exploded. “It’s fine. Don’t worry.”
They had been gaining speed since they had first started walking and were now in front of an old, beat up, run down house. It was tan and had three windows, two of which were boarded up. The door had long disappeared. “Darn, he’s not home.” Sasha said, seeing that no lights were on and Charlie and Itchy were never asleep this early. “Wanna hang at my place until he gets back?” Sasha asked Loni, who was staring at the old building in disgust. “Charlie actually lives in that pile of junk?” Loni asked, her face still showed a hint of disbelief. “Hey, they’re pretty lucky to live there.” Sasha irritably said. “I’m just used to better.” Loni said. “Look, I don’t know what planet you’re from, but no dog I’ve ever known has ever lived in a good, clean, new home.” Sasha said to Loni, who just stared at her. “You’re sick.” Loni said, popped her chin up and walked on like the queen of England. Alex, who had stopped to look at Charlie’s house, heard the commotion and decided to catch up in case another fight broke out. He was relived to find that it had pretty much died out.
They soon arrived at Sasha’s. Her house was nicer than Charlie’s, but still no where near as nice as Loni and Alex’s home. They went in and found it to be a very humble, homey place. Sasha plopped down on a couch that looked like it had been picked off of the curb. “Have a seat.” Sasha said. “N-no thanks.” Loni said, looking at the torn furniture in disgust. “So, you wanna go to the café?” Sasha asked Loni, who was still glancing around. “Huh? Oh, um, wouldn’t it be closed by now?” “No, it’s sort of a night club. But it has more of that café feel. You know what I mean?” Sasha said to Loni, then looked at Alex. “What about you, little guy?” Sasha asked. Alex had been sitting in the corner, looking rather nervous. “Uh…sure, sounds like fun.” “Then come on!” Sasha said before heading out the door.